Welcome to the Jewish Book Council blog. We hope you'll join us as we venture into the world of Jewish books, exploring questions related to what makes a book Jewish, trends in the Jewish literary scene, interesting new books to come across our desk, emerging authors, interviews, and more. Feel free to write to us with your opinions and ideas. We'd love to hear from you! All posts can now be viewed directly on the main JBC website here: http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/_blog/The_ProsenPeople/

Join novelist Claire Messud and a prestigious panel for a lively debate on gender, culture, and literature in translation. Joining Messud are National Book Award winner Norman Rush, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lorraine Adams, Orange Prize winner Andrea Levy, and Israeli novelist Alex Epstein, who take on some of the toughest questions facing world literature today. >>More Information

Center for Jewish History. 15 West 16th Street, Tickets: $15/$10 PEN and Center for Jewish History Members www.smarttix.com or 212.868.4444

Eshkol Nevo is one of Israel’s most exciting new voices. Since 2008, he has been the chosen artist of Israel’s Cultural Excellence Foundation — one of Israel’s highest recognitions for excellence in the arts. He’ll be joined by Michael Orthofer, managing editor at The Complete Review and its Literary Saloon for a discussion about art, home, living under threat, and of course the art of breaking up. >>More Information

Cosponsored by the Center for Jewish History and the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York

These writers from Russia, the US, Israel, and Poland will consider these among many questions: Can the novel — in this ironic age — still give voice to such strong feelings about societies? Are ideals themselves— whether uplifting or despairing — incompatible with the novelist’s inquisitive tack? And isn’t every utopia someone else’s dystopia? >>More Information

Cosponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY and Bookforum

What virtues and challenges are unique to the short story? How flexible is the form? Join acclaimed practitioners of the form from Bosnia, Israel, China, Mexico, and the United States, for a conversation with The New Yorker fiction editor, Deborah Treisman about the past, present, and future of the short story. >>More Information

Back for the third year running is the fast, fascinating, and fun Translation Slam. Joining us for tonight’s tussle are Thomas Pletzinger from Germany and Martin Pollack from Austria who will be translating Cathy Park Hong, and Assaf Gavron and Barbara Harshav, who will tackle the work of Alex Epstein in Hebrew. >>More Information

Why have novelists so long been drawn to the subject of war? And how do writers engage with this fraught and complicated subject? Join novelists from Afghanistan, Spain, Romania, and Israel as they discuss these and many other questions. >>More Information